Hundreds of hardcore Al Qaeda fighters at large: FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation experts on Thursday told a Senate hearing that many hardcore Al Qaeda terrorists, capable of carrying out bombing attacks, are at large.

They said that in Egypt alone members of Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist groups like the Egyptian Islamic Jihad may number in the 'small thousands'.

J T Caruso, acting assistant director of the FBI's counter terrorism division, and Thomas Wilshere, deputy chief of the international terrorism operational section, stressed that just getting rid of Osama bin Laden will not end the Al Qaeda threat.

"We need to go beyond one leader and go down into middle management, or at least upper middle management to disrupt the group's activities," Caruso said.

"There is going to be a stuttering in the organisation's momentum upon the death or capture of bin Laden, but the effect may be limited to reducing the terrorist output by 40 or 50 per cent," Caruso projected.

Caruso traced Al Qaeda's activities back to its founding by bin Laden and others in the early 1980s (with American arms and funds funnelled through Pakistan's ISI) as a cog in the war effort in Afghanistan against the former Soviet Union.

"Given its long history and level of commitment," he said, "it is one thing to disrupt an organisation such as Al Qaeda, and another to totally dismantle and destroy it."

"Destruction of Al Qaeda," he said, "must truly remain an international effort and cooperation at all levels in order to be successful."

The fight, he stressed, must involve continuing diplomatic and intelligence efforts in addition to the current military campaign.